


I’d Take California To Hawkins Any Day Of The Week

by SyrupLime



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Billy centric, Child Abuse, M/M, Will and El are Billy’s Ducklings, and an idea in my soul, i don’t have an update schedule, i just have this scene in my head, ill add more tags, not really planned out, powers, so do what you want with that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 10:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20928716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyrupLime/pseuds/SyrupLime
Summary: Billy was one when he got lost.He’s sixteen when he’s found again.Or Billy’s parents grew up in Hawkins and he was born there and he got kidnapped and now he’s back.





	I’d Take California To Hawkins Any Day Of The Week

**Author's Note:**

> So uh, this is my second fic for this show, I really hope y’all like it. I don’t really have an update schedule but it shouldn’t be too long until the next update? Idk how long this is gonna be but probably not more than six or seven chapters.

Billy was one when he got lost. 

Stumbling around the one playground in all of Hawkins, he went in search of the darkness. The forest was big and dark and cold and Billy relished in it. He’d rather play in the trees, in the dirt and the dark than the searin metal structures. The thought of his mother still sitting on the park bench sat distantly in the back of his head. 

He stumbled farther and farther into the woods as the sky got darker and harder to see. The trees here were taller and thicker and the animals seemed to no longer be afraid of him. Billy figured he should be afraid but all of this, but all it did was spur him on. Deeper and deeper he went, until he came to a place that was just kind of off. Different than the rest, but not entirely bad, Billy thought. 

There was something black and tar-like dripping from a knot in the tree in front of him. Billy watched it, taking a few tentative steps forward. He could feel the life in the black that was darker than all the rest. He could tell that the life was gals he was getting closer. He could tell that this was a dark he didn’t like. 

The consciousness in the ink seemed to reach for him but he still wasn’t afraid. He watched it with suspicion, knowing it would try to get to him as soon as he let his guard down. There was a standoff in the dark and quiet, a boy versus a monster. It didn’t take long for the monster to do what it always did. It struck out and Billy automatically pushed back. But not with his body. With his mind. 

The monster tried and tried to reach the boy but he didn’t back down. They were locked together in an unseen battle when Billy found a weak spot. He pushed as hard as he could against the weak spot. The monster started collapsing, trying hard to keep its grown. But it was doomed the moment Billy fought back. He made in final push and the darkness fell away. 

It seemed like the entire forest cleared up. Well, as much as a crowded forest in the middle of the night can clear up. Billy looked up and saw the moon shining down on the patch of land. Then, he heard a branch snap.

A man was standing behind him. Billy didn’t trust him but his presence was less malicious then the monster. Except the man was still a monster. 

“How’d you learn to do that?”, the man inquired, voice sickeningly sweet. 

Billy shrugged, never one to be very verbal. The man just nodded, though there was a wicked glint in his eye. Billy started to feel less sure of the power he just used. This was not the type of monster it was used to fight. 

“I can help you,” the man said. Billy knew he was lying. He wanted Billy to help him. The man just wanted to use Billy. 

Still, there wasn’t much he could do when strong hands fell on him and a cloth was pressed to his face. The world faded into the one black he hated to see. 

When he woke up, his name was Number Nine. 

***

Billy was five when he was Billy again. 

He stumbled from the simulated light and into the darkness that has always kept him safe. He ran as fast as he could, back to the forest, back to the playground, back to the little shack that used to be his home. Except no one was there. I matter how much he shouted and how far he spread his abilities, he couldn’t find his mother. 

Then he felt a tug at the perimeters of his mind and he spun around. He watched a truck roll into his driveway and he vaguely recognized the man who stepped out of it. The man looked at him like he had seen a ghost. Billy has never stopped being on edge but he knew the man wasn’t going to hurt him. Knew he could get away if he did. 

“You Billy Asher?”, the man asked. 

Billy flinched at his name. It’s been a long time since he’d been anything other than Number Nine. But it felt good to have it back again. He gave the man a nod. 

The man blew out a breath. “You’ve been gone a long time, son.”

“Not...my...fault,” Billy croaked out, his voice long unused and underdeveloped. “Papa...wouldn’t...let me leave.”

The man’s eyes widened at that. “You were taken?”

“I would...never leave Mama,” Billy replied fiercely. The man nodded. 

“Then let’s get you back to her shall we?”

The man opened his car door and waited. Billy glared at him, then the door, then him again, before finally climbing into the car. 

48 hours later, he was on a flight to California to see his mom and the dad he’d never met and his name was Billy Hargrove. 

***

Billy is six when he gets his second abusive father. 

Neal (because he refuses to call him his dad) never really liked him. Thought he was a freak and a nuisance and the reason his girlfriend left him six years ago. But he had never done anything to him when his mom was there. 

And then his mom went away for the weekend. And Billy had never stopped using his powers, but he thought he could stop being afraid. He was wrong. 

The man who neither of them wanted to be his father stumbled into the house around nine, drunker than Billy had ever seen him. He saw Billy sitting there and glared at him, but just stumbled off to his room. Billy sat on edge for the rest of the night. 

Eventually, Billy disappeared into the kind of darkness that had become his friend over the years. He woke up to a crash and a searing pain in his head. He swiveled his head around like a frightened animal and flinched away from Neal’s furious form above him. 

The man grabbed him by the collar and threw him on the ground. 

“Go do the dishes,” he barked before collapsing onto Billy’s place in the couch. Billy knew he could easily shatter all the dishes over his head without much effort. 

He turned and did the dishes. 

***

Billy is eleven when he gets a new family. 

Max and Susan don’t know about his powers. Neal makes sure he beats him often enough to keep him from using them. Billy starts using his fists instead of his head. 

***

Billy is fourteen the first time he kissed a boy. 

They had snuck into a high school party and drunk anything they could find. They stole some weed and caused some ruckus before stealing away to the docks. They were drunk and high and Billy’s face and hands were marred from the fight the day before. 

The kiss is sloppy and awkward but it’s the only one they ever had and it makes them feel warm. They trade kisses the rest of the night. And Billy goes home feeling better than he had since he was one. 

He’s fourteen when he gets his heart broken the first time. 

***

Billy Hargrove is sixteen when he gets caught with a boy. 

He is sixteen when he gets sent to the hospital for three broken ribs and a broken arm. 

He is sixteen when he goes back to the place that the dark was just too dark. 

He is sixteen when uses his powers again. 

He is sixteen when he knows his life is over.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want, come talk to me at waste-nautical-battlements-cat on tumblr.


End file.
